[Hybrys]

The other thing you're all missing is that there are many many different HD Audio chips. Even just from Realtek. Along with that, even just the way the board is built can change the sound.

My little netbook runs a Realtek HD Audio, and it sounds great. Nearly comparable to my TOSLINK fed old-style Zero. That said, I have an XPS tower that I use as a server. It has an older HD Audio, and it sounds terrible.

If it's good, it's good.

 

[leeperry]

the SS depth is inexistent on those Realtek chips...if you have cheap headphones and/or a lot of dual opamps in your audio path it wouldn't matter I guess....yet, THD+N is very high and it's not because it sounds "tubey"

I add a RMAA measurement of the ALC888(I personally made) to this post, and for a shameless comparison here you can find a RMAA of the Firestone Spitfire(running on its discrete linear PSU): RightMark Audio Analyzer test: SPITFIRE

 

[Junliang]

realtek HD onboard audio vs creative x-fi
for gaming wise.. playing tf2

using only sennheiser pc160 headset,

with cmss-3d on, with other effects off

the directional audio did improved quite alot, but still needed sometime to get use to the sound and utilise it well

but.. what other kind of sound change should I be expecting ?
maybe it tried it for games, thats why other than directional audio, cant really hear much other difference.

Going to try it with crystalliser on later, then switch to k701 and try..

then its time to try to lend the ad900 from my friend

 

[nathanloiselle]

Okay, I'm reviving this thread but only because it seems no one ever answered the actual question.

I owned an iPhone 3GS and can comfortably claim that it had horrible sound. It's not surprising that the sound from a laptop or computer would sound better. Even my chromebook sounds better. With that said everyone figured that the iPhone would have great sound since the iPod did. But the iPod is meant for audio and the 3GS is a jack-of-all-trades.

So there's your answer. The 3GS doesn't have an audiophile (or mid-fi) quality DAC and your computer likely has something mid-fi.